For dealing with the diversity and complexity of printed material, improvement in the operational efficiency of the photographic plate-making operation in the field of print reproduction is desired.
In particular, improvement in the operational efficiency when compositing and contact work are carried out in a relatively lighter environment has been desired, and progress has been made with the development of silver halide photographic photosensitive materials for plate making purposes which essentially can be handled in environments known as light rooms and with the development of exposing printers.
The silver halide photographic photosensitive material for light room purposes described herein is a photographic photosensitive material with which light of wavelength of 400 nm or more, which does not include an ultraviolet component, can be employed as safelight lighting.
In recent years, concern over environmental problems has increased universally, and there has been a great demand for a reduction in the rate of replenishment of developers and fixers in the systems which are used for the processing of sensitive materials. Reduction of the coated silver weight of the photosensitive material is one means of reducing the rate of replenishment, but this gives rise to problems such as a reduced maximum density (D.sub.max). Reducing the grain size of the silver halide emulsion and increasing the covering power are means of obtaining a high D.sub.max with a small amount of silver and, since there is no need to increase the photographic speed, research has been conducted to reduce the grain size in high silver chloride emulsions for light room contact type sensitive materials. Disclosures have been made in JP-A-63-183438, JP-A-63-296034, JP-A-63-306436, JP-A-l-108123, JP-A-4-14033, JP-A-4-122923, JP-A-4-127143, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,659,647 and 5,104,777 in connection with fine grain silver chloride emulsions. (The term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application".)
When the fine grain emulsion D.sub.max is increased and, with the advantage of reducing the amount of silver, the transparency of the film is increased and problems arise due to the occurrence in halation of the transmitted light in operations such as the dry dot (which is a characteristic feature of the contact field), and due to a marked deterioration in tone reproduction. There are methods in which the amount of backing dye is increased or in which an antihalation (AH) layer is introduced for solving these problems, but when dyes are added to solve these problems, further problems arise such as residual coloration on rapid processing and a marked reduction in photographic speed on exposure from the reverse side.
Methods in which acidic dyes which have sulfo groups or carboxyl groups are localized in a specified layer using a mordant were known in the past as a means of fixing dyes in an anti-halation layer. The polymers of ethylenic unsaturated compounds which have dialkylaminoalkylester residual groups disclosed in British Patent 685,475, the reaction products of poly(vinyl alkyl ketone) and aminoguanidine disclosed in British Patent 850,281, and the vinylpyridine polymers and vinylpyridinium cationic polymers disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,548,564, 2,484,430, 3,148,061 and 3,756,814 are known, for example, as mordants of this type. Further, cationic mordants in which secondary or tertiary amino groups, nitrogen-containing heterocyclic groups or quaternary cations (based on these groups) are included in the polymer can be used for effectively mordanting the acid dyes.
However, diffusion of these acidic dyes into other layers is frequently observed with mordants of this type. The use of a large quantity of mordant has been considered for preventing the occurrence of this diffusion, but it is not possible to stop diffusion completely. Furthermore, the thickness of the layer in which the dye should be included is increased and, as a result, new disadvantages arise. Moreover, the operation known as reduction (in which a reducer is used, for example, to adjust density or gradation) is frequently conducted with sensitive materials for printing plate making purposes and a water soluble iron complex is included in the reducer as an active ingredient. When a cationic mordant, as described above, has been used, disadvantageously, electrostatic bonding occurs with the iron complex and yellow staining by the iron complex occurs as a result.
Furthermore, the inclusion of a dye as a dispersed solid as disclosed in JP-A-56-12639, JP-A-55-155350, JP-A-55-155351, JP-A-52-92716, JP-A-59-193447, JP-A-62-198148, JP-A-63-197943, JP-A-63-27838, JP-A-64-40827, European Patents 0015601B1 and 0276566A1, International Application laid open 88/04794, JP-A-2-277045, JP-A-4-14033, JP-A-4-127143 and U.S. Pat. No. 510,4777 is known as another means of retaining the dye in a specified layer within a photographic photosensitive material.